Ranked #492

Seitokai no Ichizon

*Hekiou Academy Student Council Meeting Log*

“… I am Kaicho (president), I am KaichoO! By the way, does the president do anything?” – excerpt from episode 11’s ending theme.

What happens when four pretty girls and one handsome guy spend most of their school time everyday in a confined room? Naughty thoughts aside, if you were thinking “oh my god, not another harem” then you were right! Seitokai no Ichizon is NOT a harem, strictly speaking (though our male protagonist tries very hard to make it so). In reality the poor dude gets bully by his female mates more than he ever deserves. So who might this anime be good for? If you are looking for a parody that pokes fun at itself and the entire anime industry in general, then Seitokai no Ichizon will surely meet and most likely exceed your expectation! In fact not only does it do a good job with the too-frequent parodies, but with high quality animation, and impressive new ending themes every episode, Seitokai no Ichizon is a great anime for all ages.

The story of Seitokai no Ichizon centers around the everyday “adventure” of the student council in Hekiyou Gakuen high school. Its setting primarily consists of one place, the student council room, although exceptions do occur in the show from time to time. Now you must be wondering, what can a show that limits itself to one cramped room has to offer? Surprisingly the answer is, plenty. With plenty of jokes and plenty of parodies targeted at other recent well known anime, there is never one boring moment in the show for viewers to complain about. Even if the story itself does not attract the viewers enough due to its random episodic events, but by combining the story with the character interactions, nice consistent animation, superb voice acting, and addictive soundtracks and theme songs, Seitokai no Ichizon has some of the deadliest combination to make it stand on its own ground.

It was interesting for the characters to repeatedly admit that “nothing ever happens” in their show. And yet they never fail to entertain the viewers with what they can do to make the show appealing solely by chatting. In fact, it is hard to judge these characters in any normal anime standard because they are out of the ordinary. As the casts themselves have put it, “This is where we end after airing twelve episodes? … The main character is supposed to mature after a time (but) … nothing changed.”. They poke fun at their own lack of character growth, but in actuality most characters have had their fair share of developments through learning about each others’ past or family problems. The characters certainly made a positive impact to the overall success of Seitokai no Ichizon due to their unpredictability.

The animation is nothing but greatness. The characters are very nicely designed and even the one and only classroom is very detailed in design with a large variety of decorations and hidden rooms. Fluid scene to scene transition, consistent high quality animation, and a great choice of “scenery” also made Seitokai no Ichizon very attractive to the eyes. Additionally, comedic-like faces on the characters whenever a random chat start appearing also helps crack people up. The animation definitely is another strong point that makes up for the lack of story.

At first I was very skeptical with the seiyu in this show because all the main female leads are apparently voiced by rookies. Yes, they are ALL rookies. New to the anime industry, these female seiyu all tried exceptionally hard to make themselves stand out as a bright star. Unfortunately they were all excellent in voicing their roles so I could not say who seem to be the most talented (unlike in other shows where one can clearly tell some seiyu just don’t go well with the particular role at all). It is, however, quite clear that these voices bring life to the characters in the series and bring entertainment to the viewers.

Special honorary mention goes to the ending themes. Whether they are good or not, one must admit it was creative of the producers to make a unique ending song (same rhythm different lyrics) for each episode thus resulting in a total of TWELEVE ending themes. Even without the lyrics (and I strongly urge you not to miss them), the songs in itself is tremendously addictive. In fact, I could dance around my room all day with the song set on repeat in my computer. The opening, while less catchy, is still very pleasant to hear and once again it showed us the talents these new seiyu possess.

Seitokai no Ichizon is a wonderful addition to the anime industry and made itself stood out among the mist of millions of other similar anime largely due to its parody at poking fun at itself and everything anime-related. The jokes are never too old or too repetitive throughout the show and the references are relatively simple to grasp (provided you are semi-familiar with recent anime). Keep in mind the show is made in Japan and is intended for Japanese viewers who most likely have a more knowledgeable database of the anime series in Japan than we do. If you don’t seem to be able to spot a parody or two in an episode, chances are, you have already missed out on some of the jokes they are making fun of. In that case, you should reconsider whether to continue watching the series or not. Lastly I would recommend anyone who have trouble at school, whether it is your grade or having trouble making friends, to try playing love simulation games (ie. harem games)! read more

Parody and comedy are a staple genre in the anime world and sometimes can be hit or miss. This is because to truly understand parody you have enough experience with the things that are being parodied. As a foreigner to Japan and the majority of its culture, a great deal of this goes over my head as it would a foreigner trying to understand some of the humor from my own country. All of that being said some things are universally funny in comedy and that brings us to Seitokai no Ichizon, an anime that forgets to deliver the most important element a comedy must have... humor.

There isn’t any real story in Ichizon. The episodes are loosely tied together for the most part and center on the exploits of a high school student council. While shows revolving around clubs and student councils are quite common, initially Ichizon appeared to be unique. However the freshness of the series quickly wanes as I found just getting through each new episode was somehow a test of my patience and sanity. I really wanted to like this series as well but as it went on and on I found it more torturous to watch.

Is Ichizon bad anime? Not really. It’s just incredibly boring anime. And that is the main problem it has. Let’s begin with the humor. The parody and comedy is way too forced and thus doesn’t have any flow to it. It’s almost as if the writers thought the more anime and culture references they could pile in the funnier people would think it was without any regard to whether or not the jokes were actually, well funny. Just because I can recognize that something is being lampooned or a joke is being told doesn’t mean it’s funny. Sure there were many things I did find amusing and a few that I actually did laugh out loud at, but for the most part Ichizon is humorless and clichéd.

The other main issue with the series as a whole is its claustrophobic setting. 90% of the series takes place in the student council room. Even when they do leave the confines of that room then they soon seal themselves up in yet another small room. Had the jokes and parody actually been funny, this might not have been such a problem but each episode is mostly just the five of them sitting around a table screaming, talking at the speed of light, or spouting whatever cliché or stereotype their personality type is based on.

The ending is also rather bizarre. While Ichizon by its own admission doesn’t take itself very seriously, the rather somber and serious nature of some of the last few episodes felt very much out of place. For something was all about randomness and silliness this was a strange course to take. It's a bit ironic that these episodes were actually the best ones in the series, which makes you wonder how much better it could have been as a whole if it had worked on developing the plot to lead up to them.

Among Ichizon's characters, only Sugisaki Ken stands out in any way. With most harem type shows the male lead is usually the dullest and most uninteresting character in the show. Not so in Ken's case as he manages to carry the series by himself. Pretty much the only times I really laughed was because of something he said or did. The various girls of the council all have their own quirks but they all miss the same thing, actual personality. Sure they were all adorable and cute to look at but each of them had two or three personality traits that were just used over and over making each of them less substantive than cotton candy.

Artistically I found the characters to be very pretty and the styles and costumes were appealing. However because the series is set in a rather dull and plain club room that means there is little in the way of backgrounds and that makes the show as a whole to seem more drab and uninteresting than it really should have been. So while I found the art and animation to be very good, its setting brings it down much as it did with the story.

What I did find refreshing was an almost totally fresh faced seiyuu cast. In a time when the same dozen or so actors are reused ad nauseum it is really nice to hear some new blood. That being said the performances really aren’t that strong and in the end sound just like what we are used to hearing already. The music is fluffy and cute and not all that interesting. Though some of the ending remixes were funny, particularly the one from episode 11.

Ichizon in the end is disposable anime. Its worth a few laughs and then meant to be throw away. I doubt that anyone in a couple of years will even remember this show even existed. Its a real shame since as I said before, I really wanted to like it. While I don’t think it’s really terrible and maybe overall not quite as bad as I rated it, it was so boring and unenjoyable that it was painful to complete. If you are fairly new to anime or haven’t seen more than a couple hundred shows you might find this to be pretty good. For the more experienced viewer though, Seitokai no Ichizon is likely to be a disappointment.


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